Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety (63 page)

1
. GAO.
Bioterrorism: Federal Research and Preparedness Activities
(GAO-01-915), September 2001.
Bioterrorism: Review of Public Health Preparedness Programs
(GAO-02-149T), October 10, 2001.
Food Safety and Security: Fundamental Changes Needed to Ensure Safe Food
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3
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4
. Other examples are kuru, a human disease specifically associated with ritualistic cannibalism among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, and prion diseases specific to mink, deer, cats, and a great variety of exotic animals. Two Nobel Prizes honor this work: to Carleton Gajdusek for studies of kuru and
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (1976), and to Stanley Prusiner for discovering and naming prions (1997).

5
. Prusiner SB. Prion diseases and the BSE crisis.
Science
1997;278:245–251. But see: Chesebro B. BSE and prions: uncertainties about the agent.
Science
1998;279:42–43. Prions are believed to cause proteins in the brain and nervous system to fold improperly. Like other proteins, prions should be inactivated by acid in the stomach, and digested (disassembled) to amino acids by intestinal enzymes. They are not. Instead, they survive stomach acid and digestive enzymes, pass through the intestinal wall, get carried intact through the blood stream, and penetrate the “blood-brain barrier” that protects the brain from harmful substances. Prion proteins appear to be so tightly folded that they resist inactivation by acid, enzymes, and cooking temperatures. Their improbable behavior is the basis of skepticism and alternative hypotheses (such as a slow-acting virus), but most evidence now favors the existence of prions.

6
. Urry M. Major called for fewer rules on meat hygiene.
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7
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part 2
is
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8
. Will RG, Ironside JW, Zeidler M, et al. A new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK.
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9
. Less beef, more brain (editorial).
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NYT
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10
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NYT
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11
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FR
62:30935–30978, June 5, 1997. The rules exempted blood, gelatin, cooked meats, and milk, but FDA eliminated the exemption for gelatin later that year (
FR
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WSJ
, November 28, 2001:A1,A6.

12
. Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.
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. USDA/APHIS, November 26, 2001, at
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hot_issues/bse/background/documents/mainreporttext.pdf
.

13
. Becker E. U.S. mad cow risk is low, a study by Harvard finds.
NYT
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14
. GAO.
Mad Cow Disease: Improvements in the Animal Feed Ban and
Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen U.S. Prevention Efforts
(GAO-02-183), January 2002:3.

15
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16
. USDA/FSIS. Current Thinking on Measures That Could Be Implemented to Minimize Human Exposure to Materials That Could Potentially Contain the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (news release), January 15, 2002, at
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. Kilman S, Carroll J. New precautions discussed to bar mad-cow disease.
WSJ
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17
. Ono Y. U.S. beef group raises stakes in Japan.
WSJ
, April 22, 2002:A15. CDC. CDC and Florida Department of Health Investigate a Likely Case of New Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in a U.K. Citizen Residing in the U.S. (press release), April 18, 2002.

18
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19
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20
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21
. Andrews EL. Dutch farmers facing mass foot-and-mouth slaughter.
NYT
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22
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23
. Robert Koch postulated that (1) anthrax bacteria always are present in the blood of animals sick with the disease but not in healthy animals, (2) inoculation of blood from an animal with anthrax into another animal also causes anthrax, (3) inoculation of anthrax bacteria isolated from the blood of a sick animal and grown in culture will transmit anthrax to the new animal, and (4) anthrax bacteria can be isolated from the new animal. “These conclusions are so certain, that no one will dispute them, and the anthrax bacillus will be looked upon by the scientific world as the causal agent of ordinary, typical anthrax infection in both our domestic animals and in man himself.” See: Koch R. The etiology of tuberculosis (Koch’s postulates), 1884. In: Brock TD.
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24
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25
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MMWR
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26
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MMWR
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27
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28
. Ala’Aldeen D. Risk of deliberately induced anthrax outbreak.
Lancet
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29
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. Scientist’s suicide linked to anthrax inquiry.
NYT
, August 2, 2008. Also see
NYT
, February 20, 2010.

30
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NYT
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NYT
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31
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MMWR
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32
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NYT
, November 3, 2001:A23. FDA. NOOH [Notice of Opportunity for Hearing] for poultry fluoroquinolones (background information), December 7, 2000.

33
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NYT
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34
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35
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40
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Lancet
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41
. Perlez J. Individual meals from the sky.
NYT
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42
. Monbiot G. Folly of aid and bombs.
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43
. Hungry for peace: with winter near, starving Afghans need more than airdropped relief.
San Francisco Chronicle
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NYT
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44
. Dao J. Sergeant designs a better box for dropping food to Afghans.
NYT
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NYT
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NYT
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NYT
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45
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46
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47
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